This invention relates to internal combustion engines. More particularly it is concerned with a fuel supply apparatus by means of which an internal combustion engine can be run on a fuel comprised of hydrogen and oxygen gases generated on demand by electrolysis of water.
In electrolysis a potential difference is applied between an anode and a cathode in contact with an electrolytic conductor to produce an electric current through the electrolytic conductor. Many molten salts and hydroxides are electrolytic conductors but usually the conductor is a solution of a substance which dissociates in the solution to form ions. The term "electrolyte" will be used herein to refer to a substance which dissociates into ions, at least to some extent, when dissolved in a suitable solvent. The resulting solution will be referred to as an "electrolyte solution".
Faraday's Laws of Electrolysis provide that in any electrolysis process the mass of substance liberated at an anode or cathode is in accordance with the formula EQU m = z q
where m is the mass of substance liberated in grams, z is the electrochemical equivalent of the substance, and q is the quantity of electricity passed, in coulombs. An important consequence of Faraday's Laws is that the rate of decomposition of an electrolyte is dependent on current and is independent of voltage. For example, in a conventional electrolysis process in which a constant current I amps flows to t seconds, q = It and the mass of material deposited or dissolved will depend on I regardless of voltage, provided that the voltage exceeds the minimum necessary for the electrolysis to proceed. For most electrolytes, the minimum voltage is very low.
There have been previous proposals to run internal combustion engines on a fuel comprised of hydrogen gas. Examples of such proposals are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,275,481, 2,183,674 and 3,471,274 and British specifications Nos., 353,570 and 364,179. It has further been proposed to derive the hydrogen from electrolysis of water, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 1,380,183. However, none of the prior art constructions is capable of producing hydrogen at a rate such that it can be fed directly to internal combustion engines without intermediate storage. The present invention enables a fuel comprised of hydrogen and oxygen gases to be generated by electrolysis of water at such a rate that it can sustain operation of an internal combustion engine. It achieves this result by use of an improved electrolysis process of the type generally proposed in the parent application hereof.
As disclosed in my aforesaid parent application the prior art also shows electrolytic reactions employing DC or rectified AC which necessarily will have a ripple component; an example of the former being shown for instance in Kilgus U.S. Pat. No. 2,016,442 and an example of the latter being shown in Emich al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,742. It will be noted that the Kilgus Patent also discloses the application of a magnetic field to his electrolyte, which field is said to increase the production of gas at the two electrodes.